Recently, in wireless communication, a femtocell system is gaining attention. The femtocell system is a system that has a cell range (or a service providable range) narrower than that of a macro cell system and provides the service to a terminal (or a user) present in the cell range, for example. The femtocell system is installed in a house, an office, or a stadium, for example, and is thought to enable improvement enhanced in both a service providable range and communication data capacity together with a macro cell system.
A Home evolved Node B (HeNB) in the femtocell system has a narrower cell range than an evolved Node B (eNB) in the macro cell system, and a number of installed HeNBs thus tends to be greater than that of the eNBs. Accordingly, a number of HeNBs connected to a mobility management entity (MME) also tends to be greater than that of the eNBs in the macro cell system. For this reason, in some cases, a Home evolved Node B-Gateway (HeNB-GW) is installed between a mobility management entity (MME) and the Home evolved Nodes Bs (HeNB). This enables reduction of loads in the MME, for example.
Meanwhile, the HeNB-GW has a redundant configuration of an active system (hereinafter, may be referred to as an “ACT system”) and a standby system (hereinafter, may be referred to as an “SBY system”) in some cases. With the HeNB-GW, when a failure occurs, an instruction is made by a monitoring device, or other, the ACT system is switched to the SBY system, whereby continuity of communication is able to be secured, for example.
Regarding techniques in this kind of field, matters described below are available, for example. That is to say, a node device is available that divides, in stages, resource allocation with respect to a communication path based on a communication path setting request from other node and transmits a control message in stages in accordance with information on a resource allocation schedule including an execution timing of each step, for example.
With this technique, resource allocation is performed in stages with respect to a communication path in failure recovery. This is thought to enable to avoid a situation in which a resource is occupied by a particular communication path, in a condition in which requests for communication path allocation are generated in a short period of time in a concentrated manner.
Furthermore, an access gateway device is available that includes a plurality of controlling computers that establish a communication path and determine information for transfer of data and a plurality of transferring computers that transfer data to a communication path of the information for transfer. When a failure occurs, one of the pluralities of computers succeeds processing.
This technique is thought to enable to provide an optimal redundant configuration for an access gateway device with which a control plane and a user plane are separated, reduce a downtime when a failure occurs while controlling the cost of the device, and reinforce the user plane in accordance with an increase in user data.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-55357 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-63022 are examples of related art.